


The Best Way We Survive

by zeeboy



Category: Marvel (Comics), Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Bullying, First Love, First Time, Fluff and Angst, Football, M/M, Mutual Pining, Prom, Romance, Sexual Tension, Slow Burn, skinny love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-02-19
Packaged: 2019-03-18 19:54:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13688667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeeboy/pseuds/zeeboy
Summary: The highschool AU that no one asked for.Billy planned on getting through highschool flying under the radar with minimal injuries but after his first year at a new school he gets outed, discovers he's adopted, and oh yeah, he has a twin that happens to be the star running back of the school football team. Not to mention that their birthmother is actually a prominent figure in the European witch community. Tommy just wanted to play football, graduate, and leave a Tommy-shaped smoke cloud when he ran full force out of that shithole of a city but now he's got this long lost brother or whatever and nothing is going to be simple ever again.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Dirty Little Secrets" by All-American Rejects
> 
> Because this is a high school AU, duh

Tommy took another long drink of his beer. It had been a fucking hell of a summer and he was glad to finally get back to some sort of normalcy, just him, his friends, booze and about half the school reeking havoc in his parents house. But like, whatever, this was what their house cleaners were paid for.

"So did you invite your brother tonight?" Teddy asked from where he was leaning over the kitchen island. Nate looked on, equally curious.

"Chill with the brother thing, I barely know the guy"

Nate scoffed, "You guys spent the whole summer joined at the hip. He's your twin dude"

Tommy gave a shrug, "We were looking for our birth mom, it's whatever. And just because he has the same face as me, doesn't make him my brother right away” he sighed, pushing his hair back. “Dudes a geek to be honest. Kind of a freak too, he spent hours on Wanda's creepy witch blog after we found it"

"You weren't the least bit curious?"

Tommy raised an eyebrow at Teddy. "About all that witchcraft bullshit? Fuck no"

The blonde rolled his eyes, "No, about your birth mother"

"Oh. I guess? We do kinda look like her. She's got a twin brother too, that was a little freaky"  
The boy got a little quiet, draining his bottle with a sort of far off distant look as the whole summer of him and Billy holed up in his room with two laptops and a million phone calls replayed in his head. Billy wasn't so bad, definitely didn't deserve all the shit he went through at school all the time. Tommy knew he was the lacrosse team's favorite punching bag, they were probably all just bitter because no one gave a shit about their shitty team when football season came around. And it wasn't just the gay thing because Teddy never got so much as a glare from anyone at school, but then again Teddy was probably twice the size of anyone on their team, they knew they would never stand a chance. Nah, Tommy knew Billy got picked on because he was too damn vulnerable. Fuck, maybe he should have brought the guy out tonight.

"So what do you think he's up to tonight? Billy, I mean" Nate asked, pulling out three fresh beers from the fridge and handing them out. Tommy passed out the bottle opener but Teddy just twisted it off with his hand.

"How would I know? He's probably just sitting around his room drowning in his lame comic book collection" Tommy took another swig.

***

Billy was hunched over on top of his bed, his laptop perched on his lap as he read over Wanda's biography page on _The Scarlet Witch_ website for the hundredth time. Her life philosophy of using her 'abilities' to heal and guide others to their fullest potential sounded so...inspiring. Billy loved his mom, his real mom, the woman who adopted and raised him and never made him feel any different from his siblings. However, he couldn't help the strong pull to know his birth mother that he had ever since he and Tommy found her. Well...found her online. All of this witch stuff he will admit, kind of freaked him out at first. The more he looked into the blog though, the more he found himself relating to her. So yeah he splurged some of his paycheck and bought a few of her homemade items in the online store linked to the site. In his first purchase he bought a couple of healing candles and essential oils. Then he couldn't help himself and bought a couple of crystals, protective rings, and a charmed pendant that he kept on a chain under his shirt at all times.

He scrolled to the specific blog entry that he had seen before and hit the English translation setting. It seemed simple enough, just instructions on how to properly meditate with the healing crystals. He looked down at his small collection of divination tools and picked out a couple that he liked, one for self esteem, one to ward off negative energy, another for creativity, a pretty purple one that was supposed to help with his anxiety and the last one to open his heart to new love. He held that pale pink crystal in his hands, twirling it between his fingers and couldn't help but sigh. It wasn't like he was love sick or whatever, there wasn't any one in particular he thought about. To put it blatantly, Billy was just tired of being lonely. He got pushed around nearly every day being told that he was disgusting, that he was wrong. There wasn't anything wrong about being gay, Billy was raised to accept all kinds of people, his parents were always very loving and supportive. But god sometimes he just wished there was someone he could talk to about this. Someone who understood and was there to listen and hold him after a rough day.

Billy got himself situated on the floor, legs crossed as he placed the crystals around him, a black candle to the left of him and a white candle to the right. He lit them and checked the instructions one last time before taking a deep breath and closing his eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cliche meet cutes and brotherly bonding...or whatever.

Billy was nose deep into one of his new books that explained the basics of Wicca, the religion Wanda frequently referred to on _The Scarlet Witch_ , when he walked down the crowded halls of his school. He was pretty used to weaving through the traffic of students without having to look up so when he felt a harsh shove to his side he knew it had to be intentional. The book, along with the textbooks he was carrying all fell to the ground, getting shuffled around by other kids trying to get to class and avoid the obvious display about to unfold. 

"Watch where you're going faggot" a familiar voice spat at him. Billy looked up from under his bangs to see John Kesler, the captain of the lacrosse team in all of his greasy, meathead glory. The other guys behind him just laughed. 

"I was" Billy gritted under his breath as he crouched down to pick up his books. 

"You got something to fucking say, freak?" The same boy shoved at Billy's back with his foot, sending him stumbling to the ground.

 

"Tommy, isn't that your brother?" Nate shoved his shoulder lightly from where he was pulling books out of his locker. 

"What? Oh shit" Tommy turned towards the altercation and sighed, shutting his locker. "Damn it Billy" he sighed as he tossed Nate his backpack and walked towards the site, Tommy didn't need to look back to know that Teddy was already following close behind. 

"Hey! Numb nuts!" Tommy called out, pushing Kesler hard against his chest so he fell back against a few other guys on the lacrosse team. Honestly he didn't even bother to learn the rest of their names, he was too busy being infinitely better than all of them. "Why don't you back the fuck off, yeah?"

Just as the captain was about to retaliate, he hesitated, seeing Teddy walk up behind Tommy. 

"Oh, fuck off Shepherd. What do you care if one little fairy gets what’s coming to him. You didn't before" 

The remark made Tommy flinch, his guilt visibly eating at him. 

"Wanna run that by me, pal?" Teddy stepped forward, a few of the other lacrosse players stepped back at that. "I'm one of those ‘fairies', you gonna give me what I deserve too?" The tall, muscular blonde glared, ready to lash out. 

Billy's eyes widened from where he was on the floor, still gathering his books and slowly standing up. Tommy was actually standing up for him. And Teddy Altman was gay? He spent the entire summer with his twin and the guy couldn’t tell him he wasn’t the only gay kid at this school after hearing him vent about it constantly? Being so caught up in his inner monologue, Billy didn't quite catch the response Teddy got from the other boy, but he assumed it wasn't good the way all of a sudden Tommy had to hold his friend back while Teddy looked positively murderous. Just as quick, there was a loud smacking sound and a flurry of bodies that all gasped at the impact.

Tommy and Teddy stilled as Kesler went down hard, Noh-Varr shaking out his hand in front of them. "You're welcome" he said, turning to look at Tommy who glared back at him. 

"I had it handled"

Non-Varr rolled his eyes, "Yeah whatever" he shook his hand out again before someone had shouted "TEACHER!" and the crowd of students who had gathered to watch, quickly dispersed. 

"Shit, run!" Tommy took off down the hall, Noh-Varr right behind him. 

"Come on Billy!" Teddy went around to tug on the shorter boys arm, pulling him in Tommy's direction until he finally snapped out of his initial shock and took off running, his arm still in Teddy's grasp. 

They all ran into the West Hall locker room, all of the boys besides Tommy out of breath from the sprint. "Fucking hell Billy, you really got that damsel in distress role sorted out" Tommy shook his head, brushing his white hair back out of his face. 

"Fuck off" Billy panted, going to sit on the wooden bench in between the walls of lockers. "But...thanks Tommy. For...you know, sticking up for me"

Tommy was silent for a moment, he then shrugged and gave Billy's shoulder a playful shove. "What are brothers for, right?".

Billy looked up at the other and gave a small grin. He turned to look at Teddy and Noh-Varr next, "You guys too, uhm, thanks." His eyes locked with Teddy's, a million more things he wanted to say, to ask, still hesitant on his tongue. 

Noh-Varr waved him off. "It was nothing, I've been looking for a good excuse to deck Kesler since the 8th grade" he shrugged. "I'm out losers, see you at practice" he called over his shoulder as he left the locker room. Tommy flipped him off even though it was well after the other was gone. 

"Dick" he rolled his eyes, landing on a book that Billy was still holding on his lap. He was quick to swipe it out from his brother's grasp. "Are you kidding me? Billy come on I thought you said you weren't gonna mess with this shit. That woman is probably crazy" he said as he flipped through the book on Wicca. Billy tried to grab it back but Tommy was faster at keeping it just out of his reach. "You don't honestly believe in all this witchy bullshit do you?" 

Billy huffed out in annoyance, his flushed cheeks gave away his embarrassment. “I don’t know, maybe”

"That stuff is pretty cool actually" 

Both Billy and Tommy whipped their heads up at the taller boy. Teddy took a step back, they looked almost exactly the same when they made the same shocked expression. 

"Uh...my aunt was into that sort of thing," he explained. "She made really good tea and listened to a lot of Fleetwood Mac"

Tommy rolled his eyes, tossing the book back onto the bench while Billy was still looking at Teddy with a stunned, blushing face. 

"Great, encourage it. He doesn't need to just get the shit beat out of him for being gay, might as well upgrade him to being a gay witch while we're at it." Tommy shook his head, "I'm outta here" he lifted his hands in defeat, walking out of the room. 

Letting out a soft sigh, Billy rubbed the back of his neck. Maybe Tommy was right, he thought as he gathered his books again. 

"Hey, don't listen to him" Teddy took a seat next to Billy, and if Billy thought he couldn't blush any harder, he was obviously wrong. "There's always gonna be jerks out there who will always have something to be mad at. But you can't let let other people dictate how you live your life. If you wanna be a Wiccan, then do it. Safely, of course. Auntie always warned me about karma and all that so if you wanted to hex Kesler I won't stop you, but I'd highly advise against it" he said in a slightly teasing tone.

That made Billy actually laugh, his hand flew to his mouth to cover his ridiculous grin. "I...uh yeah I don't think I'll be hexing anyone. But like, you can say that because no one in their right mind would want to mess with you. Look at me, it's like my face is just screaming 'Come harass me!'"

Teddy chuckled at that, smiling at the other boy and reaching up to gently hold Billy's cheek in his hand, moving him so that they faced each other. "I'm lookin', and harassing you isn't the first thing that comes to mind" he grinned softly, dropping his hand. "Besides, you have me and Tommy looking after you now" 

Billy's cheeks were probably glowing red by now, his body practically frozen. "U-Uh...yeah?"

The blonde just grinned wider, "Yeah, of course" Teddy rose to his feet, giving Billy a wink before shoving his hands in his pockets and whistling as he made his exit. 

Billy was absolutely dazed, his mouth dropped open as he watched Teddy leave. When he was finally alone, he took a deep breath, "Holy shit..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the positive feedback! Next chapter should be up within a week.


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